News

Loss of Russian-Made Rocket Engine Threatens Space Assurance

—Otto Kreisher7/17/2014

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Russia’s threat of refusing to provide its
powerful RD-180 rocket engine could endanger the assured access to space that
is critical to America’s national security and economy, cautioned high-level defense
and NASA officials, as well as a bipartisan coalition of senators on July 16. But
the officials and lawmakers, speaking during a joint hearing of the Senate
Armed Services Committee and the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee,
differed on the urgency of developing
a domestic alternative to the Russian heavy-lift engine. Air Force Space
Command boss Gen. William Shelton said assured access to space “at the times
and places of our choosing” was critical to US national security. The loss of
the availability of the RD-180 “would have significant impact on our ability to
reliably lunch the current manifest of national security payloads on a schedule
of our choosing,” Shelton said. Most of the senators at the joint hearing argued
for an aggressive program to develop a US alternative to remove the threat, but
the defense and NASA officials said Russia has not acted on the RD-180 threat
and the current supply would last more than two years. On the other hand, it
could take up to eight years to produce an alternative engine. (See also Engine
Wars and Engine
Vulnerabilities.)